University Of Chicago Cuts Ribbon On New Hospital

The University of Chicago's new Center for Care and Discovery will serve as the new core of its hospital campus. (Photo by Tom Rossiter/University of Chicago)

CHICAGO (CBS) — The University of Chicago Medical Center has unveiled a new high-tech facility on its Hyde Park campus.

WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports Gov. Pat Quinn helped cut the ribbon for the university’s new $700 million hospital, called the Center for Care and Discovery. The new hospital will provide specialty care, advanced surgery, and high-tech medical imaging in a South Side community urgently needing such care.

U of C Unveils New Hospital

When you think of the literally millions of dollars that went into the building of this building, and now the operation coming forward, it’s important that we take those investments of those dollars, and make sure we have a healthier population,” Quinn said.

State Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago), who lives just blocks from the new building, praised the 2,700 new jobs created by the project.

“It was explained in the construction of this building how the university really embraced inclusion and diversity, by having nearly 50 percent participation by MBEs and WBEs (minority and women’s business enterprises),” Raoul said. “That shows what can be throughout the city of Chicago.”

The first patients at the new 10-story 1.2 million square foot hospital will be admitted in just over a month.

The existing Bernard Mitchell Hospital building at the hospital campus will remain open, and eventually be renovated.

Craig DellimoreCraig Dellimore, political editor for WBBM, joined the station in 1983 after working for several years with the Associated Press Radio Network in...More fromCraig Dellimore